August 10, 2012 – Kindergarten Day
by mmooch
Summary: **Part of the 2012 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts August Fic-A-Day** series, also known as the 'Wacky Holiday Series'. Buffy looks to transfer schools after a tragedy claims most of her friends and family.


**August 10, 2012 – ****Kindergarten Day**

Summary: **Part of the 2012 LiveJournal's Twisted Shorts August Fic-A-Day** series, also known as the 'Wacky Holiday Series'. Buffy looks to transfer schools after a tragedy claims most of her friends and family.

Challenge: for the livejournal 2012 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

**Warning: massive character deaths.**

Timeline: end of season 4 for BtVS; end of season 3 for DW, but change the dates so they line up. And push the airdates for BtVS and AtS back so they happen in mid-April instead of mid-May.

A/N: Canon changes for BtVS.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. A Different World characters belong to Bill Cosby, Carsey-Werner Productions and Viacom Productions. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

**Sunnydale**

It had started with the absolute worst day of Buffy's life…and she was including the day she died, the day she killed Angel, the day she went into Ken's hell, and almost every day since she was Called…_combined_.

While she had been fighting Adam in the secret lab, some demons got through the barricade and killed Giles, Xander and Willow. Fortunately, the spell didn't lift until after Adam was destroyed; must have been a safety switch they didn't know about.

When she got to the room and saw their bodies – and Spike standing over them – she snapped. Even as he was trying to feed her a line of crap about trying to save her friends, Buffy didn't even pause before she picked up a tray and hurled it at his neck. The sheer rage and force she put behind it managed to do the seemingly impossible of beheading the 'Slayer of Slayers'.

Buffy held onto that rage as she tore through the droves of demons and vampires who were killing people in the rest of the building. Had she been looking at the humans, she would have seen abject fear in their faces as they watched The Slayer in action. Even her boyfriend was looking at her like he had never seen her before…like she was one of the HSTs they were supposed to study.

After the last demon body fell to the floor, Buffy walked out of the building, seemingly unconcerned about the virtual river of blood and death she left in her wake.

All she could think in her shocked state was that she had to tell Anya, Tara and her mother. Anya's reaction was pretty much what Buffy expected. The former demon frowned, then said she was leaving; the only reason she stuck around was because of Xander, and now that he was gone, so was she. Tara, while devastated by Willow's death, realized that it was just as bad – if not worse – for Buffy since she lost three friends at the same time.

When they got to Buffy's house, the blonde Slayer was grateful Tara was with her. If she had been alone when she found… Tara's presence kept Buffy from going comatose when they discovered Joyce's body on the sofa. She looked like she was sleeping, but when they tried to wake her, she was cold to the touch. There were no markings on her to indicate she had been attacked.

The autopsy that was performed later indicated a blood clot in her brain caused Joyce to die while she was napping. The doctors tried to reassure Buffy that there would have been nothing she could have done if she had been there.

Because of the carnage in the Initiative, the demon population in Sunnydale was at an all-time low, but the part of Buffy's brain that was dedicated to Slayer issues knew that was only a temporary reprieve. The rest of her brain knew that she just couldn't handle it anymore…or at least not for a long time. Her 'destiny' had finally demanded too much of her and she was sick of it.

So she drove to LA – yes, she learned how to drive after that accident the previous year; she just didn't like to – and found Angel's group huddled at Cordy's apartment, going on and on about some prophecy. They lost their offices because a bomb blew it up or something? She honestly didn't care. All she wanted was for Angel to get her in Faith's prison to visit her.

Cordy started to snap about Buffy's attitude, but froze when Buffy explained that everyone was dead…including her mother. They tried to offer their condolences, but all Buffy wanted was to talk to Faith. Maybe she'd feel bad later about how abrupt she was with them, but at the moment, she was barely holding herself together.

At the prison, Buffy bluntly asked Faith if she wanted to take over the Hellmouth or die so the next Slayer could protect it. When Angel protested the idea of killing Faith, Buffy pointed out that she didn't have to _stay_ dead; just stay dead long enough for the next girl to be Called.

Still…Faith decided that it would be better to work for her redemption than to sit and think about it 24/7.

* * *

Back in Sunnydale, the higher ups with the Initiative talked to Buffy, concerned that she would raise a public stink about the project. They even offered her a hefty chunk of hush money in exchange for signing a paper that said she wouldn't leak the info – Buffy added a proviso that she could talk if another Initiative-type group started up again.

It wasn't as if she were going to talk anyway, but she figured that she might as well make the idiots pay for her to start over someplace else. Oddly enough, as she made her plans to cremate her friends – except Willow, whose remains were buried after Buffy made sure she hadn't been turned – and her mom, Riley never entered her thoughts. Xander's parents didn't care what happened to his body as long as they didn't have to pay for it.

Even as she prepared to move across the country – somewhere on the East Coast sounded nice – she didn't think about what Riley would say. He was busy kissing ass with his superiors to avoid military jail or something for going AWOL.

Where on the East Coast should she go? As tempting as it would be to go to the Big Apple, she knew that the money wouldn't last that long there. Plus she didn't want to live too far north. She grabbed a map of the coast and closed her eyes, spun the map a little to be sure she didn't influence herself, then dropped her finger.

Virginia. That didn't sound too bad.

Another map pointing and she came up with a little town called Upshaw. As luck would have it, they had a college there. Some place called Hillman. When she explained the situation to the admissions office there, they were very kind and offered to get her enrolled for a summer session in case she couldn't finish her courses for the spring term at UC-Sunnydale. That was assuming she met their other criteria. They suggested that if she could fly out for a few days, they could look at all her paperwork and give her a tour of the campus. Then by the following Monday, she would know if she could go there in the fall.

It all sounded good to her – especially the part about getting away for a few days.

She went to the college and got her transcripts and cleared it with her professors that she'd be gone for a few more days. Considering the fact that her roommate and mother just died, they were very understanding. Good thing she didn't live in a different city or somebody might have been suspicious of the timing of the deaths.

* * *

**Hillman College**

**A couple days later…**

Dropping off her paperwork didn't take too long, so Buffy started walking around the college. One of the first places she went to was Gilbert Hall, one of the dorms…which apparently had just been made co-ed that year – according to the brochure she was reading.

It wasn't until one of the female students made a snide comment about 'Barbie' coming to visit that Buffy noticed she was one of the only white people in the room. _**'Huh, guess grief really does cloud your perceptions,'**_ she thought. Thinking back, she had only seen a handful of non-blacks – or was the term African-Americans now? – since she got to campus. And she vaguely remembered the brochure mentioning something about the college being an all-black college at one time. She just thought it was like one of those all-girl schools which became co-ed or something. Maybe those schools still had a higher number of female students compared to male students.

Anyway, she had to decide if this would be a problem for her. Sunnydale was mostly a white town, and Hemery didn't have a lot of racial diversity either. On the other hand, she had issues that were a bit more important than worrying about somebody's skin color…unless it was vampire-pale or demon-whatever-color.

But could she get away with standing up for herself without somebody accusing her of being a racist?

Before she could make a decision, a woman's voice yelled across the room, "Josie! If you're going to act like a brat, you can go sit with your nose in the corner!"

To Buffy's surprise, the snide girl actually went and sat in the corner. What kind of discipline system did they have here?

An older girl – Buffy guessed maybe mid-to-late 20s? – came over to apologize to her, "I'm sorry about Josie and her mouth. I'd give you an excuse, but I can't think of one. I'm Jaleesa, the assistant resident director for Gilbert Hall. Is there somebody you're looking for?"

As Buffy was about to answer, a bell went off and Jaleesa yelled again, "Nap time, everyone! Grab your mats and lay down; girls on the right and boys on the left! I don't want to hear any talking from you people!"

"I'm sorry if this sounds…I don't know how it would sound, but something tells me I'll probably offend you if I ask," Buffy stammered, at a loss for a way to find out if this was normal behavior for college students.

Jaleesa looked perplexed for a moment, then started chuckling. "Oh, you're wondering about the punishments and naps and stuff?" she checked.

Breathing a huge sigh of relief that she didn't have to ask the question out loud, Buffy nodded, "Yes! Is it an East Coast thing or something? I'm from California – land of the weird – but I haven't seen this before."

Taking pity on the petite blonde, Jaleesa explained, "One of our residents thought it would be amusing to celebrate one unusual holiday a month. This month we decided on April 21st, 'Kindergarten Day'. When they are in the dorms, the residents of Gilbert Hall act like they're in Kindergarten. Fortunately, it's a Friday so they don't have to worry about homework for tomorrow."

"Okay," Buffy drawled. "And how's it going with a bunch of 5 year olds?"

"Makes me never want to have children," Jaleesa replied dryly. "Now what can I do for you?"

"I was just taking a tour of the campus to decide if I wanted to come here next year as a transfer student," Buffy answered. "Just thought I'd check out one of the dorms."

Buffy explained why she was transferring while Jaleesa showed her one of the rooms and numbly accepted the older girl's condolences.

At the end of the day, Buffy was sitting in her hotel room, thinking about the college and her life. Okay, so she'd probably have to deal with more Josies since she would be the minority here, but she liked the classes she peeked in on, and had to admit that the holiday thing was rather amusing. It would be kinda cool to see what they came up with for holidays next year.

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A/N: There isn't a town listed as the home place of Hillman College, so based on the description from wiki, I came up with Upshaw, VA as a good place.

Hmm, not as amusing as I originally thought when I saw the holiday for this fandom. Guess killing most of the cast of one show would make things a bit more somber, huh?


End file.
